Medical bracelets, and the like, may be used to alert others to the existence of a medical condition of the wearer. However, medical bracelets cannot provide detailed information about the medical condition, much less information of particular relevance to the wearer. Moreover, medical bracelets do not have the ability to provide anything more than a mere notification. If the wearer becomes incapacitated, medical assistance personnel will have to undertake an investigation to determine the nature of the medical condition.
Some medical bracelets may include a serial or code number that is uniquely associated with the wearer. The serial number may be used as a key or reference number for identifying medical information about the wearer, which may be stored in an external storage location. While such an approach can address the limited amount of information available to medical assistance personnel, it also introduces new problems related to accessing the external records. For example, the medical assistance personnel will need to be able to identify the entity that maintains the medical records. Also, there is a risk that the external records maintainer is no longer available to provide the records. Moreover, the time it takes to access the external records may reduce the available time to treat the wearer.
Increasingly, medications can include lengthy and detailed instructions. The instructions may address the procedure for taking the medication as well as information about interactions with other medications. These instructions and interaction warnings can be difficult to remember. Additionally, this information, as well as complete medical records, may need to be provided to medical assistance personnel that do not have prior knowledge of the medical history of a patient. The amount of storage capacity needed for medical histories and records is also increasing rapidly, particularly when copies of medical imaging reports are included. Transferring this amount of information from a remote storage site to the location of the patient may not be practical, especially in emergency situations.